When the weather goes bad, the Triangle goes straight to comfort food... the Grilled Cheese Sandwich. A growing obsession among American foodies, grilled cheese mania has swept the nation.
Durham is home to an amazing food culture and the American Meltdown is part of this culinary scene.

With the rising food truck trend, a love for street food and the desire to build his own brand, Paul Inserra created the American Meltdown. Grilled Cheese sandwiches gussied up with pesto, pulled pork, or figs garners crowds lined up for lunch, and national awards. With the importance of "location. location. location," the food truck concept follows crowds and develops a following based solely on the merit of how delicious the food is.

Inserra, 34, started his venture in post-collegiate limbo, an English major in search of a lucrative path. Once he'd settled on a Durham-based food truck, he considered ramen noodles, dabbled in hot dogs. Then, after a string of informal taste tests, he judged grilled cheese the winner. Shortly afterward, Inserra discovered that these sandwiches served as a perfect blank canvas for an inventive food truck chef.

 The grilled cheese sandwich offered endless opportunities for improvisation. He could alternate breads, juggling white, wheat, and sourdough. He could insert any cheese he wanted: Havarti, Gouda, manchego. The Kubla Khan sandwich is his smoked pulled pork, Asian coleslaw, Dijon mustard, and provolone. He built the Scarborough Fare sandwich from an herb pesto composed of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. He invented Pigs 'N' Figs, a grilled cheese made with Black Mission figs, speck, local goat cheese, and a dribble of reduced balsamic vinegar on sourdough.

Hungry yet? To find out where the American Meltdown Truck is each day, you'll need to visit their calendar on the website or follow them on Twitter.